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THE SONG OF SOLOMON 



THE SONG OF SONGS 
WHICH 
IS 

SOLOMON'S 



VERSIFIED 
BY 

GEORGE WINSLOW PIERCE 
OF 
BOSTON 
MASSACHUSETTS 
U. S. A. 



LIBRARY Cf CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

NOV 2 1904 

Copyrient tntry 

XXc, No: 
COPY Ef. 



. Copyrignt tntt 
CLASS & XXc 



PREFACE 



IF the reader will look into unbounded space immortalized by Immanuel 
Kant for the drifting finite universe of Simon Newcomb and pick out 
of the hundred million star systems thereof the one Pierre Simon de 
Laplace distinguished by his attention he will find God's Earth on which 
in the northern half of the continent called America and Western and 
section marked United States on the map is a division spelled Massachu- 
setts the principal city of which is known to its inhabitants and some 
outside and Eastern Continentals as Boston. Solomon, whose Song 
herein submits for us to metrical form, still lives and is respected in said 
Boston, your author's Apology and Excuse. Everything is forgiven in a 
great preacher, is what he tells Him answering, he has proved that 
language is but a mirror, of whatever date and manufacture. The 
Thought is His, unaltered, in every line. Good-by, GOOD-BY (HE 
WISHING, wishing he, COULD HEAR, could hear, FROM him, 
from HIM), with a welcome from both to their reader again. "« Would 
that My (Fri)en — (d) had written,' " "Would that my friend had written, 
another book ! " 

There are people, he knows, mostly gentle, who appear to regard the 
relation of the sexes as improper. Nevertheless we owe a great deal to 
it, including ourselves, and could not well do without any more than the 
flowers, which would all dry up and blow away and leave no growth 
and no beauty anywhere on the face of the earth. The Ancient Jews 
were not of this cult, but were lovers, and in their loves seem to have 
subserved the purpose of Nature and by that subservience to have 
bequeathed a speech among themselves (which a boy tells me to-day he 
speaks in Boston) and a living name, to their succesosrs. 

If a bachelor indeed might risk his judgment (which our Original was 
not') it is the abuses and not the uses of lovability that are at fault, 
improper, immodest, indecent, disgusting, and damnable, for instance, 



PREFACE 



the same as everything else that is good. It must be borne in mind also 
that love is one of the great human impulses (a form of worship, which 
is the greatest, fear being the other form ; reverence, their union ; awe, 
the same, fear predominating ; devotion, love predominating ; jealousy, 
love and hate ; horror, fear and, the hate predominating, making sick ; 
terror, fear predominating, making us mad ; wrath, the reaction from our 
sense of right, when we are ; rage, the same, when we are wrong ; calf- 
love, immature ; doting, senile ; heat, natural ; lust, exaggerated ; prurience, 
repressed ; concupiscence, general ; infatuation, particular ; prudery, dis ; 
coquetry, simulated ; etc. — self-projecting, exhaustive Passions, all of 
which, pretty much, your informant has suffered. Write down, love is a 
form of worship), perfectly and naturally depicted herein. The taste, the 
fashion, the fad, the fancy, of it may be changing ; but the thing ITSELF 
will continue to be when we no longer cast the shadow of our opinion, 
valueless perhaps to other times and places, as that of other times to us in 
Boston, upon, above, around, and over, to conceal, how vainly ! some 
part of it. 

300,000,000 copies of the Bible having been distributed during 
the past century — Century Magazine for July, 1904, p. 433 — and the 
Distribution still going on, and The Song being of the sixty-six books 
the least appreciated (Let thy banner over us be love— chapter ii, 4, 
the only word ever borrowed, although Look not upon me because I am 
black — chapter i, 6, would make a good enough text), this attempt 
to show the real power and splendor in places and sincerity and truth 
everywhere of the same (Or ever I was ware My Soul shone on me 
there — chapter vi, 12) may be forgiven, and its reprinting, while it 
may fall short of the third hundred of millions, not be expressible with 
— 000,000,000 — all zeros. 

The explanations at the head of the chapters of the Allegorical 
Propriety of the text have not yet been versified by (and there being 
no mention of God in the Song, the beginning with capital letters of the 
appelatives and the pronouns chosen for either of the two lovers by the 
other, has seemed equally excusable to) 

THE AUTHOR. 



1 

A Song of Songs I sing, 



2 

The kisses of My King 



3 

Whose breath the virgins love, 



4 

Perfumed wine above. 



5 

Invite me! We will run 



6 

For joy to Solomon. 



7 

Within His chambers sweet 



8 

The King has set my feet! 



9 

In whom with heart and voice 



10 

The upright maids rejoice. 



11 

Though Judah's daughters sigh 



12 

comely black am 



13 

As Kingward curtains are 



14 

And tents of wild Kedar. 



15 



Regard me not 5 the sun 



16 

Hath all my beauty won: 



17 

My mother's sons were hard 



18 



They made me keep the yard 



19 

Who could not keep my own, 



20 

With blossoms overblown. 



21 

Tell me, my Dearest Love, 



22 

Dost feed below, above? 



23 

And where at noon doth rest 



24 

Of neighbors' flocks The Best? 



25 

Knowest thou not, So Fair? 



26 

pastures fresh repair 



27 

And raise Thy beauteous lids 



28 

Beside the shepherds' kids. 



29 

Love beyond compare, 



so 

Than Pharaoh's chariots 



31 

With jewelled cheeks behold, 



32 

With chains of brightened 



33 

And studs of silvern sheen 



34 

Old-golden bands between! 



35 

The King is at His meat; 



36 

My spikenard savoreth sweet. 



37 

A bunch of myrrh to me 



38 

My Well-Belov'd shall be 



39 

And lie the livelong night 



40 

Betwixt my breasts aright. 



41 

Like cypress clusters He 



42 

Mid vines of En 



43 

So fair, Companion-Heart, 



44 

With eyes like doves' Thou art 



45 

Our Best-Beloved Queen 



46 

Whose bed is living green 



47 

With cedar beams and fir 



48 

Unhewn o'erarching Her. 



49 

The Rose of Sharon I, 



50 

And with the lily vie. 



51 

The lily among thorns 



52 

My Love the field adorns. 



53 

An apple in the wood 



54 

Among the trees He stood. 



55 

I nestled at His feet; 




56 

His fruit indeed was sweet. 



57 

banner o'er my head, 



58 

His love the banquet spread. 



59 

Stay me! With flagons stay! 



60 



With apples tempt to-day 



61 

Of love so long bereft 



62 

Am sick at last; His left 



63 

Beneath my nape is placed, 



64 

His right around my waist. 



65 

Ye Judah's daughters 



66 

By all that love and 



67 

The roes, the hinds afield, 



68 

Stir not, to day revealed, 



69 

Nor wake Him till He rise 



70 



With wholly opened eyes, 



71 

His voice! at last His voice 



72 

Doth on the mount rejoice! 



T3 

As skipping o'er the hills 



74 

The hart with morning thrills. 



75 

Behind the wall He stands 



76 

The lattice feels His hands. 



77 



He spake again to me; 



78 

Arise, My Fair, be free! 



79 

The winter now is past 



80 

The rain is o'er at last. 



81 

The flowers are up; the birds 



82 

Are singing truly words. 



83 

The turtle wooes the 



84 

Awake ! arise ! away ! 



85 

The figs are green again, 



86 

And vines to waiting men 



8T 

Give out a goodly smell; 



88 

Arise, My Care, and dwell 



89 

In secret haunts above 



90 

And clefts of brooding love 



91 

Where I can see and hear 



92 

Thy voice and features dear. 



93 

The foxes drive afar 



94 

That come our grapes to mar! 



95 

My Well-Belov'd is mine; 



96 

For Him alone I pine. 



97 

Among the lilies He 



98 

Doth feed until we see 



99 

The shadows flee away; 



100 

Return, My Love, to stay 



101 

Bether's mount a 



102 

My Roe and Tender Hart 



103 

By night upon my bed 



104 

I found Him not; I said 



105 

Along the city street 



106 

I'll seek My Dear, My Sweet. 



107 

sought but could not find 



108 

The watch were hardly kind 



109 

Of whom I asked 



110 

Saw ye My Best of Men ? 



Ill 

A little farther quest, 



112 

I drew My Roving Guest 



113 

Within her chamber nigher 




114 

Where Mother held my sire. 



115 

Ye Judah's daughters 



116 

By all that love and lie, 



117 

The roes, the hinds afield, 



118 

Stir not, to day revealed, 



119 

Nor wake Him till He rise 



120 

With wholly opened eyes. 



121 

Who cometh from the woods 



122 

Like choice perfumed goods? 



123 

Behold His bed, a score 



124 

Beside, behind, before, 



125 

With swords experienced quite 



126 

Prepared to ward the night. 



127 

The King with joiners' aid 



128 

A cedar throne hath made 



129 

With silver pillars 



130 

With gold and purple die, 



131 

The centre paved with love 



132 

For every loyal dove 



133 

Who forth from Zion down 



134 

Doth meet the royal crown 



135 

Bath-sheba placed upon 



136 

Her Saved, Espoused Son! 



137 

How art Thou fair, My Love, 



138 

With eyes like Gilead's dove\ 



139 

Against Thy curling hair 



140 

A flock of goats compare. 



141 

Like sheep Thy even shorn, 



142 

Well washed, twin teeth adorn 



143 

Thy lips of scarlet thread, 



144 

Their words how sweetly said! 



145 

The temple 'twixt Thy locks 



146 

A pomegranate mocks! 



147 

Thy neck like David's tower 



148 

Which hanging shields empower! 



149 

Thy breasts how like the roes 



150 

Twinned where the lily grows! 



151 

Till morning sleeping pressed, 



152 

Who wert my waking quest, 



153 

own Thee fair to see 



154 

And find no spot in Thee. 



155 

From Lebanon, My Fair, 



156 

From Amana repair, 



157 

From Shenir'sj Hermon's, peak 



158 

Where lions, leopards, seek 



159 

Their tamely yielding prey 



160 

Come Thou, My Spouse, away 



161 

Who bear' st my ravished heart 



162 

Soeverwhere Thou 



163 

Pierced with Thy single eye, 




164 



165 

My Sister-Spouse 5 how fair 



166 

Thy love than wine's despair! 



167 

Thy sweeter ointments quell 



168 

All other spices' smell. 



169 



Thy lips with honey pout, 



170 

With milk my tongue's in doubt 



171 

And all Thy raiment tells 



172 

Of mountain cedar fells. 



173 

My Garden Closed, My Spoused, 



174 

My Spring, My Fountain Housed, 



175 

Thy plants are like the fruits 



176 

Of pomegranate shoots. 



177 

Camphire and spikenard vie, 



178 

Saffron and calami, 



179 

With trees of frankincense, 



180 

With spices most intense, 



181 

With cinnamon, with myrrh; 



182 

And all in vain with Her, 



183 

A garden watered well 



184 

From Liban's mountain dell. 



185 

Awake, ye winds, arise 



186 

From southern, northern skies, 



187 

descend upon my yard 



188 



*ain till twice as hard 



189 

Its spicy burden plays 



190 

Where My Beloved stays, 



191 

And woo Him quickly here, 



192 

To taste delight and cheer 



193 

come, my Sister Spoused, 



194 

Into my garden housed, 



195 



gather myrrh and spice 



196 

And taste My Honey twice, 



19T 

drink my milk, my wine, 



198 

With friends whose joys are mine. 



199 

In sleep my heart awakes, 



200 

My Love the portal shakes; 



201 

Open, My Dear, He cries, 



202 

My Undefiled Prize, 



203 

To Thine Elect that knocks 



204 

With dew-beads on His locks. 



205 

I have removed my dress 



206 

Shall I approach in less? 



207 

I have refreshed my feet; 



208 

Must I their soil repeat? 



209 

My Well-Belov'd did stand 



210 

Beside the gate, His hand 



211 

Within its entering hole, 



212 

Possess my heart and soul; 



213 

I rose to open wide, 



214 

My hands with myrrh undried 



215 

Were on the handle set, 



216 

With myrrh the lock was wet 



217 



I opened wide apart — 



218 

My Love was gone, My Heart; 



219 

I sought, I called, I stayed, 



220 

I wandered, lost, afraid; 



221 

The watch have dragged to gaol; 



222 

The keepers, torn my veil. 



223 

Ye Judah's daughters, when 



224 

Ye find my Best of Men 



225 

Below, beside, above, 



226 

Say I am sick of love! 



227 

O Fairest Sister, when 



228 

Was love so scant of men 



229 

Beloved that thy plight 



230 

Disturbs our day and night? 



My Love is white and 



232 

Of all mankind The Head; 



233 

brow no grace doth lack, 



234 

locks are curled black 



235 

His eyes like eyes of doves 



236 

springs attending loves 



237 



Are washed with milk and set 



238 

sockets glistening 



239 

cheeks are spiced like flowers, 



240 

His lips with myrrh for ours; 



241 

And beryl ringed with gold 



242 

His wrists and fingers hold; 



243 



belly ivory-bright 



244 

With sapphires o'er its white; 



245 

His legs of marble fine 



246 

In golden feet align ; 



247 

face is like the mount 



248 

Whose cedars none doth count; 



249 

mouth withal is sweet 



250. 

Himself, from head to feet. 



251 

To me this Seemly Friend 



252 

Ye Judah's daughters, send! 







X 1 p 




|hx a 1 



253 

Whither, O Fondest Fair, 



254 

Hath He departed? where 



255 

Can His diversion be, 



256 

That we may seek with Thee? 



257 

My Love hath sought His bed 



258 

Of spices, garden-fed, 



259 



260 

Am His and He is mine. 



261 

As Tirzah fair art Thou, 



262 

Nor Salem shames Thy brow 



263 

Terrific as the host 



264 

Our Israel's banners boast. 



265 

Thy vision turn away, 



266 

Too bright for mine to-day; 



267 

Thy hair like Gilead's goats 



268 

His own the author quotes 



269 

From former Chapter Four 



270 

Two following verses more. 



271 

Mid threescore queens She shines 



272 

O'er fourscore concubines, 



273 

Virgins to shade the sun; 



274 

My Love is only one, 



275 

My Dove the Undefiled, 



276 

Her mother's lonely child, 



277 

Her mother's only choice 



278 

Whom all with heart and voice 



279 

The daughters saw and blessed, 



280 

The concubines confessed. 



281 

The queens proclaimed Her charms, 



282 

The morning framed Her arms. 



283 

The moon approached Her face 



284 

The sun could scarce replace, 



285 

Terrific as the host 



286 

Our Israel's banners boast. 



287 

Within the garden bright 



288 

Of nuts I found delig 



289 

The pomegranates fin 



290 

The cultivated vine. 



291 

Or ever I was ware 



292 

My Soul shone on me there 



293 

Like chariots of fire 



294 

Propelled by Nahshon's sire. 



295 

O Shulam, Shulamite, 



296 

Return to mortal sight, 



297 

In whom we trembling see 



298 

Two armed hosts agree! 



299 

How beauteous are Thy feet, 



800 

My Prince's Daughter Sweet! 



301 

Like gems Thy jointed thighs, 



302 

Their cunning workman's prize! 



303 

Thy navel's like a bowl 



304 

Which roundeth liquors whole. 



305 

Thy belly symbols wheat 



306 

Upon its harvest seat. 



307 

Thy breasts like bounding roes 



308 

Twinned where the lily grows. 



309 

Thy neck an ivory tower, 



310 

And eyes like Heshbon's power 



311 

Of fishpools by the shore 



312 

Of Bath-rabbim, and more. 



313 

Thy nose like Liban's height 



314 

Which views Damascus, white. 



315 

Thy head like Carmel fair, 



316 

Thy locks a purple snare 



317 

Where Love hath caught The King 



318 

And caught hath taught to sing! 




319 

How fair, My Love, how fair 



320 



321 

Thou standest like a palm, 



322 

Thy breasts and either arm 



323 

Inviting fingers bold 



324 

To gain a doubled hold. 



325 

Thy nose like apples smells, 



326 

Thy palate sampled tells 



327 

neighbors of the vine 



328 

sweeter joys than wine, 



329 

Forbidding still to keep 



330 



Their secret even sleep, 



331 

Our loving thoughts combine; 



332 

Am His and He is Mine. 



333 

Come, Love, we will go down 



334 

From each adjoining town 



335 

To all the vineyards near 



336 

And watch the grapes appear, 



837 

The pomegranates bear; 



338 

And I'll reward Thee there 



339 

With mandrakes smelling sweet 



340 



gates with gifts reple 



341 

Of pleasant fruits unsold 



342 

With names both new and old, 



343 

And other favors free 



344 

Which lovers pair to see. 



345 

Wert Thou a son confessed 



346 

That bared our mother's breast 



347 

Could I not meeting kiss 



348 

Without reproof for this} 



349 

Into her harbor lead, 



350 

Her skilled instruction heed, 



351 

My pomegranate wine 



352 

With choicest spice combine 



353 

To verses hardly new 



354 

(Chapters Three, Five, and Two)? 



355 

Who cometh from the wild 



356 

With her beloved ? Child, 



35T 

Beneath an appled 



358 

Welcome mothered Thee 



359 

When, hurried into air, 



360 

Her Hope became her Care. 



361 

Thy bosom seal 



362 

My name, to none reveal; 




363 

For love than death is strong 



364 

Nor tamely suffers wrong, 



365 

coals are scorching hot 



366 

Which love endureth not. 



367 

The floods can never drown 



368 

True love in field, in town; 



369 

And chains of standard 



870 

Can neither clasp nor hold. 



3T1 

have, our brood among 



372 

A sister still so youn 



373 

She hath no breasts at all; 



374 

When Love her name doth 



375 

What can affection 



376 

o build her over new? 



377 

Had she but been a wall, 



378 

With silver palace hall 



379 

Had she been but a door, 



380 

With cedar boarded o'er 



381 

wall, a door, am 



382 

With breasts uprounding high 



383 

Our Singing King have taught 



384 

And^ teaching singing, caug 



385 

The King his vineyard let 



386 

In Baal-hamon set, 



387 

A thousand silver coins 



388 

From keepers each enjoins, 



389 

The fruit among to share 



390 

Of all the season there. 



391 

My vineyard for its wine 



392 

Doth bring a thousand, Thine 5 



393 

And they that keep to sell 



394 

Two hundred each must tell. 



395 

Thou Garden-Dweller, all 



396 

Beside attend Thy call. 



39T 

Make me to hear Thy voice 



398 

And in its praise rejoice. 



399 

Hasten, Beloved, near; 



400 

My Roe, My Hart, appear 



401 



Upon our spicy hill, 



402 

My pulse with joy to fill! 



THE SONG OF SONGS 
WHICH IS SOLOMON'S 

PIERCE HAS VERSIFIED 
(MONOGRAMMED AND DESIGNED) 



From " The Life-Romance of An Algebra- 
ist," by the same author (of six other 
books and seven songs with portraits, 
sheet music). 

"My design on the cover, with its regular 
lines and heart-like curves, symbolizes 
the flower of Love and Truth. The 
fruit developed at the centre (by continu- 
ing the lines) is a star, the emblem of 
Unchange." 



NOV, 2 1904 



